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Topic: Terescence (Read 6508 times)

The world of Terescence is a large fantasy world I am designing for use as the setting of my 3rd Edition D&D campaign. It is an amalgamation of Terry BrooksÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢ Four Lands, Robert JordanÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s world and a number of things I came up with on my own to both replace and support the other ideas of this world to make it my own, the way I wanted it. First off IÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢ll explain the story of how Terescence came to be.

In the beginning there was the goddess Sileera. She was everything. After an eternity, she became lonely and longed to have something tangible to touch. She broke off a piece of herself and this piece became Xavion. Time and Terescence were created in the backlash of energy released as Sileera broke the piece off. Xavion became the ruler over time and space, as they were the consequences of his creation.

As Xavion moved time forward, life began to appear on the tiny planet. The goddesses LlyÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢Saana and Gaea were born. Lly'Saana and her sister, Gaea became the Goddess of Life and Healing, and the Goddess of Nature, respectively. They created plants and animals, imbuing each one with a bit of the energy that was released, the energy that had coalesced and become the Sun, when Sileera inadvertently created Terescence. LlyÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢Saana created a being which called itself an Elf, the first sentient being of Terescence.

Life flourished on Terescence, then it started to die. The god Roegoth had been born, and he collected the bits of energy that were in each of those who died, returning these souls to the Sun, the massive piece of glowing energy also called the GodsÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢ Light by those beings who lived on Terescence. The creatures that were born replaced those who died and a balance was struck.

The god Jaelyre was born out of the air, water, wind and fire of the world, acting as steward of the elements and helping to keep everything in balance. A strange energy began drifting across this world, an invisible one, created by the life forces of two new gods, Arein and Ariane. These twins gave off an energy used by some of the creatures on the planet to power what they called magic. The male of these Arcane Twins gave off the energy used by females, and the female gave off the energy use by males. These gods became known as Arein, the God of Female Arcanists and Ariane, the Goddess of Male Arcanists.

As civilization began to advance, four new gods were born. Kiatora watched over money and beauty, and created the humanoid cat race of Kreesha. Norix created his own race, the Dwarves and became the master of the forge and hearth. Yuromelic became the Scholar Queen and birthed the Gnomes. Zaphil bore the race of Halflings and was known as the Laughing Gypsy, the goddess of travel, entertainment and thieves.

After a while, the beings of Terescence began to get jealous of one another, fighting amongst themselves and finally battling in great numbers, killing one another. The god Markorde had been born, and with him, the race of Orcs, vicious warmongering hordes. Most hatred sooner or later subsided into arguments, which became disagreements and then disappeared all together as other arguments became fights, then new wars and again, a balance was struck.

Two more gods were born with the creation of Humans. Tymat, the god of Good and Gorshina, the goddess of Evil began to fight for control of Terescence, giving beings causes to fight for and against. Suragon, the goddess of Chaos and CÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â¼thosh, the god of the Undead joined in the fighting, stirring turmoil in the world.

Terescence has continued in this way for countless millennia, the 17 gods and goddesses overseeing their creation. My campaign world is rich with diversity and conflict, kingdoms at peace and at war, life being worshipped in one land, while in the next one, life is needlessly thrown away. It is an exciting place, just as our own Earth is.

Of Steamworks and Electrik Wonders: The Rise and Fall of the Artilian Culture

"If one travels across the lands of Terescence he will find a number of great ruins and giant metallic objects, long since forgotten. These are the legacy of the Artilians. Many centuries ago, an empire swept across the length and breadth of Terescence. They were just as magically knowledgable as we are today, but they were very scientifically minded. They created the technology of the steam engine and they started understanding the principles behind chemical processes and electrik current.

They had flying machines which could rise hundreds of feet into the air. There were mobile steam engines which pulled passengers across vast tracts of land much more rapidly than horses. These engines were also used to create electrik currents which powered lights, and many other things. A more obviously impressive technology that they had was called black powder. They used a chemical reaction to make powder used in firearms. These were used as weapon which would fire metal balls at extremely high velocities. The empire flourished for many centuries, becomeing more and more technologically advanced until they suddenly disappeared. The entire race seems to have just one day vanished into thin air, leaving behind only their ruined engines and a few fragments of knowledge in books buried in their collapsed cities and outposts. Though we at the University here in Makal have labored for decades over the small amounts of artifacts and books we have discovered, we have revealed only the smallest fraction of the Antilian technologies. We still have only one steam engine which we have repaired so it is operational, and we have no idea how to make it do anything. Our work continues though, and we have high hopes for the future."

There are six basic humanoid races living in Terescence used by characters. There are, of course, other humanoid races: orcs, ogres, trolls, etc, but they're powerful enough that they should probably only be use by players in extenuation circumstances.

Humans: The humans are basically barbarians. They live in the wilds among the plains, ashlands, desert, jungles and mountains. Their only system of government is tribal, a male leader called the Thane and a female leader, the wise woman. Sometimes a human gets a taste for the civilized life of a city and will leave its tribe, becoming more intelligent and, usually, religious. Humans are varied in appearance, depending on tribe. The Boar Totem Tribe is shorter, heavyset and extremely strong, while those of the Jaguar Totem are slender, tall and amazingly fast. Their hair, eyes and skin vary just as much as their physical appearance.

Elves: The elves are the populous city-dwellers. They are the basic warriors and religious people. They range from the traditional forest-dwelling elves, such as those living in the tree city of Cullebra, to the architectural wonders of cities such as Makal or Pook Took. Elves are taller than in the typical D&D setting, closer to real-life humans, with the tallest nearing 6'5 or almost 7 feet(though that is a freakish rarity). They are heavier than stereotypical elves as well, again, more like real-life humans. They are not the frail, slender beings usually thought of. They usually have light hair and light to tan colored skin. Eyes can vary from blue to green.

Dwarves: The dwarves live on a large volcanic island in the middle of the sea seperating the two continents. They are excellent craftsmen at working with metal, but they are also great carvers and their woodworking is all but unsurpassed. There is a tree(red ash) on their island that is extremely durable, and they use it to create weapons and armors as well as household items. They are extremely ethnocentric, thinking other races to be hasty and incompetent. They will trade with merchants, but there are very few non-dwarves living on Irinal(the island) and it is almost unheard of to see one on the mainlands. These craftsmen are typically around 4'6 to almost 6 feet tall. They are very tough though, a by-product of living on a volcanic island for so long. Hair is generally dark, as are eyes and skin is also dark, like a real-world native african.

Gnomes: Gnomes are mostly religious fanatics. They live in convent and priestly orders in cities and the wilderness. When a gnome is seen, it is typically in a market square or street-corner, trying to "spread the good word" as that sect deems fit. Different orders worship different gods, but each are constantly trying to convert new believers to their god. Gnomes run between 3'6 and 5'. They are skinny and have light hair, brownish tinted skin and dark eyes.

Halflings: The halflings are the techno-wizards. They seek out and rebuild Antilian technology, trying to make it useful to the modern world(preferably in a profitable way for the halflings).They are extremely intelligent and are capable to spending days at a time focused on a single task. A halfling is short, as the name implies, rarely making it above 4'. They usually have dark hair, bright blue or green eyes, with a few browns, and their skin is light in complexion(too much time spend in a laboratory).

Kreesha: These cat-like humanoids are extremely dextrous and spiritual. They have a strict honor system, though there are always a few exceptions. They take great pride in unarmed combat and climbing abilities using their dangerous claws. These creatures are generally mistreated and under-estimated by the other races. They are as tell as elves, and usually slender and agile. The fur of a kreesha can be anywhere from white, to brown and grey, to black, with large numbers of multi-colored variations. The eyes are typically gold or brown.

These are the basic "character races" There are a few others, but they are much rarer than these six and are generally not used by players.

Final Note: I would like to thank Captain Penguin for his help with this post, and his help with other aspects of Terescence which I will be getting to shortly...

Ok, in this post, I'll give the specifics on how magic and technology work in Terescence.

Magic:

All magic in Terescence is divine, to one extent or another. Clerics, Paladins, etc all cast divine magic, which is derived directly from spiritual energy, the energies of the gods themselves. The power is not stolen, but simply given on loan to the casters. The god they worship allows them to use some of that god's personal energy in exchange for doing the god's work, which replenishes the lost energy. Any caster who defies the god's will or who turns on that god, will find himself sorely lacking in spell-casting ability until he either atones with his god, or finds a new god to worship who will accept him as a follower.

Arcane spellcasters use life energy to cast their spells. The life energy is a power sustained by ALL the 17 gods of Terescence, balanced and watched over by the Arcane Twins Arien and Arian. The caster need not worship any god to tap into this energy. Because the energy is not granted by a single god, they have no way to regulate its use. Anyone capable of learning how to manipulate this energy can use it without interference from the gods. The majority of arcane spellcasters still find a god to worship, even though their spells aren't granted by those gods.

Technology:

The technology found in Terescence is mostly in ruined heaps of metal and strange wires stretching across fields between cities and towns. It is decrepit and, for the most part, useless, but the men and women who devote their lives to discovering its secrets are NEVER spellcasters. The technology harnesses the power of electricity and steam. Chemicals are made from different elements and plants to cause effects ranging from healing to explosives. At one time great steam engines powered entire cities, lighting them up at night while smaller engines powered locomotives, moving people and goods great distances in much faster time than a wagon. Telegraphs sent messages across the world in a matter of hours and armies collided with the power of gunpowder to kill one another.

Balancing the Two

Magic comes from the gods, the power of the divine, to one extent or another. Technology is completely man-made, the power of science. The two are not in the least bit compatible. Like mixing bleach and ammonia(something I urge you not to do) the two combining is incredibly dangrous. There are three potential outcomes when magic is used around technology.

Possibility A: If the magic and technologies involved are both low-power, an electric battery and a very low-level spell for example, the effect is fairly minor. The spell will either fail completely, or the energy used to cast it will pull back into the caster, potentially causing damage.

Possibility B: If the spell and technology are both medium power, or one is high level while the other is low, the effect is more dangerous. The spell will have a different effect than intended. A healing spell may harm its target for example. The other potential effect at this level is the spell surging, using much more energy than it should, which is either wasted or empowers the spell more. A 10 foot diameter fireball suddenly blossoms into a 40 foot inferno, for example, with the caster having no way of controlling the surge and how it occurs.

Possibility C: If both the spell and the technology are high level, a large steam engine and a true resurrection spell, for example, the result is nigh catastrophic. The spell will overload, cause one of two things. Either a massive explosion of energy that damages objects and kills people(picture the bomb going off in any James Bond film) or it actually rips a hole in the fabric of reality. This hole is a connection between the material plane(Terescence) and a different plane(the Abyss, Celestia, Mechanus, one of the elemental planes, etc...). Creatures can pass through this hole in both directions, as can energies, objects, etc...

First of all i must say that the landscape should be fleshed out some more.That is because it is a good idea and deserves more attention.You should also give the social systems and current conflicts more material.

Like why would the elves welcome humans into their society in the cities?How do all these remnants of a once high tech past go together with peoples daily lifes? Then I do not mean magic v tech.

What i mean is, if some of the settlements are built in medievil fashion amongst the ruins of old. Do they use the ruins to live then?Are there not dangerous beings in the deep cellars of these metallichulks? Like ancient war machines, steam golems or machinery of unknown purposes? I imagine a Steam robot that was programmed to do a certain task. And it shut down when this civilization dissapeared.

What if somebody restarts it by accident? A poor old farmer or something?

Which brings me to another queston... How do these machines work?They are driven by steam, that part is okay. But what gets them going?Do we have to fill them with water and get a fire going?...No?Then how?

If this civilization "went away" so suddenly there should be plenty of myths surrounding them....

If there is much war going on, then some races would probarbly try to get some of these machines working again. Who would not want a gerat steam war golem on their side?

Wich brings me back on "the how to start them up" issue.

1. Do you simply press a button?

2. Is there some fuel? If so, is it gas, wood, oil?

3. both?

You could have crystals to make them work, but that would take away the steam thing,....though you did mention electric currents...what made them work, a battery?

I would go for small black balls of unknown material, wich is fed to the machines once a day(or something). It is forgotten knowlegde how they produced it.

So that could make it interesting, because there would be a small amount of the black balls scattered around the kingdom. What happens if a PC finds one of them? An entire plot right there. Players; "Should we try to put it in this hole or this",...."do you inderstand what those signs mean?"...."nah, lets try it anyway". DM; "Bad move amigo,... now watch this, muhahahahahahah".

ehm, you get the drift.

One thing though, our civilization on earth is pretty evolved.Did they have higher tech than us?If so that would explain the flying cars. But you did say they had merely gotten into the "electrik current" thing.

If so I find it impossible to have flying cars, if they are not powered through magic crystals or something. This demands some explenation!And one more thing, how do we know the cars were flying?Is there any proof of that, or dont the PCs/the current civilizationknow this?

*the flying cars are from Jordans world right?

Ok I think i am done for now.

remember this is just to bring your attention to certain matters.So far you are doing good, I like old/new world settings.

P.S You do not have to defend anything! I posted this so you could have some input to consider when you make your next post!

Ok, Michael and I had a conversation answering the majority of the questions he posed in his post, so I thought I'd post it until I get a chance to write up real posts addressing these issues.

21:08:37 [Alec_Shadowkin] Ok, I'll just go right down your post

21:09:25 [Alec_Shadowkin] With the landscape, social systems and current conflicts: I'm working on them. I simply haven't gotten them to the point where I can make a coherent post about them

21:10:33 [Alec_Shadowkin] The elves would welcome the humans, for example, because the humans would have goods and skills that the elves don't have, like hunting and trapping. The humans would supply furs and meat to the city dwelling elves, who would be mostly farmers

21:14:12 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] Are your elves highly sophisticated? If so, I cant quite imagine them as farmers

21:14:27 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] why dont they simply use humans for this?

21:14:42 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] If they are of a higher race that is...

21:15:22 [Alec_Shadowkin] Imagine them in the role that humans are usually in. In Terescence, its the elves who are the city-dwellers, farmers, the common people in general. Elves are more populous in my world than humans are

21:16:52 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] that(for me at leats) takes away all that is elvish about elves

21:17:11 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] I cant envision a elf working the fields

21:18:09 [Alec_Shadowkin] Yeah, but I was talking to Captain Penguin a few days ago, and he suggested I try to break the racial stereotypes, like the elves who live in the forests, hate all non-elves and cast lots of magic

21:18:59 [Alec_Shadowkin] So, I decided to make the elves more common and human stereotype-like

21:20:41 [Alec_Shadowkin] Ok, About the tech in everyday lives

21:21:28 [Alec_Shadowkin] None of the relics that are left are functioning, at least not in the cities. There are some random things that still work off in mountain caverns and stuff where they haven't been disturbed, but the rest is derelict

21:22:06 [Alec_Shadowkin] What's left of the buildings and stuff have been added onto with medieval architecture, so these antilian leftovers are just architectural wonders

21:23:02 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] so they have been fully explored? And are they used as mere lodgings?

21:23:24 [Alec_Shadowkin] In the cities, yeah

21:24:07 [Alec_Shadowkin] The ones out in the wilderness are mostly left alone, except by the occasional adventurer. Most normal people aren't too interested in delving into an ancient ruin and potentially being killed

21:25:35 [Alec_Shadowkin] The idea of a farmer or someone accidentaly activating a war machine or something is always there, but generally as a plot hook or random bit of information. The players walk into an inn and hear about how poor Joseph the farmer got eaten by a strange machine that's now rampaging the woods outside of town

21:27:56 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] If the machines in the cities are derelict and those in the wilderness could be functional, why? Is it because those in the cities has been tampered with?

21:28:54 [Alec_Shadowkin] For the most part, yes. The cities would have almost always been populated, even if just by a few people.

21:29:13 [Alec_Shadowkin] Those people will have naturally used whatever machines they could

21:29:31 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] that brings me to the question, what is the fuel, and what starts them up?

21:29:38 [Alec_Shadowkin] Don't forget that there aren't any people who know how most of these work

21:29:44 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] aha, so machines are in use???

21:30:12 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] do they understand their full potential and how do they use them?

21:30:19 [Alec_Shadowkin] If a random merchant stumbled across, say, a telegraph sending station, he'd have no knowledge of how to use it, or even of what it is

21:30:50 [Alec_Shadowkin] There is a school that spends it's time trying to rebuild and discover how to use Antilian tech

21:31:05 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] ok

21:31:21 [Alec_Shadowkin] they have a small steam engine working that they use for small amounts of electricity for lights and things, but that's pretty much it

21:31:43 [Alec_Shadowkin] Beyond that, its a lot of half-working machines that they don't understand

21:32:59 [Alec_Shadowkin] Fuel: the steam engines use water and wood or coal as fuel, though it is speculated that the antilians must have had a way of manufacturing some type of combustible in order to not use up all the coal or wood they could get

21:33:45 [Alec_Shadowkin] In reality, they did. They mixed a couple minerals to make a substance similar to napalm, which burned for extremely long periods of time without being used up

21:36:22 [Alec_Shadowkin] There are unknown numbers of myths surrounding the disappearence of the Antilians:

21:36:52 [Alec_Shadowkin] They got too powerful for their own good and caused their own destruction somehow

21:37:19 [Alec_Shadowkin] They gained enough power that they tried to challenge the gods themselves and were destroyed for their arrogance and stupidity

21:37:44 [Alec_Shadowkin] They became knowledgable enough that they decided to leave the plane of Terescence and go somewhere else, never to return

21:37:50 [Alec_Shadowkin] On and on and on...

21:39:37 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] and...?

21:39:59 [Alec_Shadowkin] What really happened?

21:40:42 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] mhm.

21:40:55 [Alec_Shadowkin] Actually, I haven't decided yet

21:41:18 [Alec_Shadowkin] Though I'm leaning toward the "left the plane of their own free will" idea

21:42:23 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] hehe, thats kinda funny, they simply left and all these fantastic myths arround them leavin are spun

21:42:53 [Alec_Shadowkin] Well, if they just decided to leave, they wouldn't have really worried about what they were leaving behind, or what later people thought

21:43:18 [Alec_Shadowkin] Maybe they left for somewhere else, evolved, and will come back as part of a campaign arc or something, I don't know

21:43:48 [Alec_Shadowkin] Since the mystery about them disappearing is the important part, I sort of want to leave it somewhat open for me to do with as I please later on

21:44:01 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] I see

21:44:25 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] The search for these elders is the ultimate question in your world though

21:44:35 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] And it would also be the ultimate campaign

21:44:45 [Alec_Shadowkin] Certainly one of them, yes

21:48:18 [Alec_Shadowkin] Ok, moving on

21:48:45 [Alec_Shadowkin] About kingdoms or whatever trying to reactivate war-engines or whatnot for their own use: the only people with even basic knowledge of how these things work are at the School, and they are by nature inactive with politics, so that they can go anywhere to gather parts or explore ruins or whatever

21:49:50 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] but then there could be spies within the school to try to get info

21:51:23 [Alec_Shadowkin] If, say, an orc tribe put together a war-engine to try and take over the nearest city, it would most likely explode or breakdown or something before they managed to pull it off, simply because they wouldn't know what they were doing

21:51:57 [Alec_Shadowkin] Yeah, but even if a spy got information to someone, it wouldn't do them much good, because they wouldn't have the expertise needed to repair the machines

21:53:07 [Alec_Shadowkin] And besides, the School doesn't bother much with war equipment. They try to work with things like trains and steam engines, stuff that would be useful to society in general

21:56:38 [Alec_Shadowkin] Next question:

21:56:51 [Alec_Shadowkin] Do they have higher level tech than us? Simple answer: No

21:57:22 [Alec_Shadowkin] Picture the tech level of the 17th and 18th centuries

21:57:39 [Alec_Shadowkin] trains, telegraphs, small amounts of electricity and chemistry

21:59:49 [Alec_Shadowkin] Well, they aren't cars, but more like small planes. Toward the end of the Antilian culture, they developed engines that could run on electrik batteries, and they used these to power small one or two person flying machines called ornithopters or sky-buckas

22:02:31 [Alec_Shadowkin] They didn't look like cars or airplanes or anything, but more like wooden birds

22:03:05 [Alec_Shadowkin] They had large wings that would flap a little to give some initial lift, and once it was in the air, they would mostly just glide

22:04:07 [Alec_Shadowkin] Does that answer everything about the flying machines?

22:04:42 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] yup

22:05:21 [Alec_Shadowkin] Ok, was there anything else?

22:06:19 [Michael_Jotne_Slayer] just that you should post these things and give a thourough explanation on how it all works

22:06:46 [Alec_Shadowkin] I think I might just post our conversation, at least for now, and modify it as I add more to the thread

"It is easy to forget the splendor and grandeur of a place when you havenÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t seen it in a long time. I did this with the fair city of Makal, but as soon as our ship cleared the twin lighthouses and entered the dock quarter, I momentarily stopped breathing. The view was absolutely incredible. The snow-white marble of the dock walls contrasted perfectly with the black towers of the Patrician's palace. The skyline of the Backbone Mountains west of the city formed a breathtaking backdrop. Even the docks themselves, typically a filthy, crime-infested area of any city was amazing to look at. Hundreds of dockworkers and sailors moved around the dark wooden planking, carrying cargo, unloading ships, making repairs, etcetera. As I stepped off the ship, I could even smell the air and marvel at the scents. A regular dock would smell of dead fish, ocean brine, sweat and dirt, but MakalÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s docks were laden with the scents of spices and breeze coming from inland. I began walking further into the city, continuously in awe of the things I saw: ~ A number of men and women in green shirts walked about the docks, actually mopping the planks and keeping it clean. ~ An ivy covered temple to Gaea, odd enough in a city, but it was situated in the residential quarter, surrounded by itÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s own massive garden and a number of ancient looking trees. ~The PatricianÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s palace itself, built almost entirely from ebony, called Blackhome, jutting above the city from its small hillock in the center of the four quarters. I almost stumbled into a merchantÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s cart with my tourist-like gazing and must have looked the complete fool, but I didnÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t care. I had been away and traveling for years, but I was finally back to Makal. I was finally home.ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬?

BasicsMakal sits on the eastern coast of the western continentof Nor'Doth, facing out toward the Blue Divide separating the two continents. It is an amalgamation of newer construction and ancient buildings, a few even dating back to the Antilian Empire. The culture is a vast mix of the ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‹Å“common racesÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢, with a few oddities such as centaurs, minotaur and others with a population around 55,000.

The cityÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s main industries are fishing, ship building, and ebony mining in foothills of the nearby Backbone Mountains. It hosts a University, complete with the most expansive library in the world. The PatricianÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s palace -appropriately enough named Blackhome for its ebony construction- is the center of the city, the home and office of the city ruler and one of the ten wonders of the world.

The city itself is shaped like a giant wagon wheel with four distinct quarters and Blackhome at the hub in the middle. The quarters themselves sit at the four compass directions. To the east is the Dock Quarter, surrounding a small inlet that allows for easy defense from a naval assault on the city. To the south is The Grundge, the poor quarter. In the west is the Plaza, home to merchants and those looking to sell their services. It is claimed by Makalans that anything you could ever possibly want to purchase can be found in the Plaza. In the north is HeavenÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s Walk. This area consists of temples, residences and a massive garden, tended to by a sect of worshippers of Gaea.

Government

A Patrician, who is chosen by democratic election, rules the city. He rules for life, unless he is somehow removed from office (particularly tyrannical patricians have been known to simply disappear). He has a group of five advisors to help him who each cover one aspect of ruling: Military, Trade, Religion, Civic Services and the Head Advisor. Despite appearances, this is an extremely efficient and plausible form of government for Makal.

Well, back from a bit of hiatus, and itching to get back to Terescence. I've been running my two Dungeons and Dragons campaigns set in this world and have quite a bit of new information to set forth. First off: Basic geography and relevant information!

There are two continents, Naveed and Nor'Doth, seperated by a sea known as the Blue Divide. They are both wildly different, in geography and in society.

Nor'Doth

Nor'Doth has a number of different geography types, varying from lush plains, to towering mountains, to deadly ashlands, to fetid swamp. Noteworthy places:

The Backbone Mountains: These astonishing natural monuments tower hundreds of feet into the air and stretch from west coast to east coast, almost directly to the shores. A number of rivers originate from these peaks, including the Jeweled River, the Toril and the Toran. The tallest of these mountains is Mount Saryn, with Sky City set at the peak.

The Bent Root: This massive deciduous forest houses the city of Cullebra, as well as spanning a full third of the western coast.

The Jeweled River: Running north out of the Backbone Mountains, this river cuts through the Plain of the Treleharme and passes nearby the city of A'Arien. Named for its rich deposits of common minerals, the color of the waters shifts from black when coming out of the mountains full of dirt, to a blood red from rich deposits of iron in the riverbed, to blue, to green, thus giving it its name.

The Kair Ashlands: This area is the large north-eastern peninsula of Nor'Doth. Due to volcanic activity along the coast and the edge of the Backbone Mountains, this area is covered in a cloud of grey ash. Rain never falls, and basically the only weather there is calm skys, or ash storms, creating an extremely hostile environment, though some manage to live here, and have built the port city of Ponfar.

Vortak's Mire: This reeking swamp is in the southern end of the continent. Named for a powerful necromancer who unwittingly created it, most people do their best to avoid it. A few more primitive beings live there in tribal society, but that's about it.

Nor'Doth is the "civil continent". Populated by elves, humans, halflings, gnomes and a few dwarves, there are a number of cities and countless towns and villages scattered all across the land. The Antilian Empire was solely contained on this continent and thus all the remaining technological debris is here.

Naveed

Naveed is as diverse as Nor'Doth, though radically different, from a social view. Noteworthy places:

Gaea's Cradle: A great tropical rainforest at the northern end of the continent which, according to myth, is the birthplace of Gaea, and the home of her demi-god daughter. There are rumors of trees within the Cradle that are more than a thousand years old, and which stretch for over 300 feet into the air.

Praete Wastelands: The largest desert in Terescence, this sandy stretch has possibly killed more men than anywhere else. The only water found here is in Heaven's Rest, a beautiful oasis. Rumors circle of a tribe of elves who manage to live in this harsh and unforgiving land.

Mirror Lake: This is a great body of water in southern Naveed which is perfectly placid allowing the surface to reflect as its namesake.

Naveed is completely undeveloped. A number of tribes inhabit it, both of elves and of humans, as well as a race of cat-men called Kreesha. The three races are constantly warring with one another, as well as with different tribes within their own races. No actual cities or towns exist on Naveed, but there are a few semi-permanent settlements.

"Screams and cries of pain were echoing off the cliff-face and a massive cloud of smoke covered the field. Simon limped behind a massive boulder, hoping to gain a few moments' respite from the carnage.The bandit group had murdered 16 men, 5 women and a single small child after holding up the steam engine outside of Arcanum. They had stolen a large amount of gold and other valuables headed for Makal, then shot all those people in their escape. He and his Company had chased these bastards for three weeks, until they had accidentaly turned and forced themselves into this box canyon. Simon and his Hawks had thought to trap them and force their surrender. They hadn't counted on the bandits' willingness to die rather than stand trial back in Arcanum. There had originally been three dozen Hawks and about twice as many bandits, but those were good odds for a Hawk. They had faced many more with less men and still come out on top. These bandits were good, however. They had intentionally gone into the canyon, an ambush already set up. As soon as the Hawks were entirely within the canyon they had struck from above, behind and in front, cutting into the gunslingers like a hot knife through butter. The Hawks had managed to cut an opening which had let them retreat and regroup, but these bandits were hard fighters, giving no quarter and no mercy. If it hadn't been for the tenacity and sheer raw skill of the Hawks they'd have been slaughered, but they had survived again. Those bandits were still there though, and the Hawks weren't done with their job. Simon ripped off a shirt sleeve and tied it around the wound in his leg. He was lucky another two inches lower and the blade would have taken off his knee. He steadied himself against the boulder and checked the bullet chambers on his two revolvers, filling them for the last time. He took a deep breath, then spun out from behind his cover. "Hail gunslingers, to me! Gunslingers, to me! CHARGE!!!!!!" "

The White Hawks are legendary. They are a corps of gunslingers who are sworn to protect the law and the citizens of Terescence, regardless of race, gender or creed. Typically male, though females are not quite unheard of, they generally begin training as young as 6. They are given an apprentice's gun and are taught to use the gun as if it were a part of themselves. When they believe they are ready, usually around the age of 18 or 19, they are given a test of skill and survival. Those who pass are given a gunslinger's weapon, a beautiful revolver with ebony grips and slight scrollwork around the barrel which reads "Swift and merciful." These guns are the mark of a true gunslinger. Those who fail their test are sent into the world alone and with no gun. Most of those who fail their test eventually find a gun again, but they are never welcomed back into the arms of the White Hawks.The leader of the White Hawks is called the Father and the others are generally refered to as gunslingers or Children of the White.

/* The background behind part of this was "borrowed" from WoTC, but I liked it and decided to make it a permanent part of my world. */

Terescence has generally been peaceful and quiet. There have never been massive armies marching across the lands or even vast kingdoms that would attempt to conquer others. The only empire in history was the Antilian Empire of over a millenia ago, and that was a peacefully created empire, come about of common goals and culture over the entire continent of Nor'Doth. When the Empire passed with the disappearance of the Antilians, the land broke up into a series of seperate city-states, each just trying to survive, none interested in taking what their neighbors had. Until recently.

About ten years ago, there began rumors of a man named Wautto and his followers, a group of people calling themselves "The Sane". Pacifists, they only spoke to people, never using force to sway others' points of view to theirs'. They believed that good and evil had a symbiotic relationship of sorts, that if good existed in the form of heros, then evil in the form of horrible monsters and maniacal people would be created for these heros to combat. Wautto and his Sane traveled the continent, stopping in small towns, villages and roadside inns to speak with the people and convince them of the problem caused by these so-called adventurers and heros. That if these heros didn't exist, then neither would the evil beings and creatures that beset the populace. Wautto, an extremely influential speaker, asked the people he would speak to to make their towns and inns into a "Place of Sanity", where heros would be unwelcome and turned away without food, shelter or money.

After converting a number of towns and other places, including the northern city of Ponfar, Wautto began spreading even quicker than before. Rumors spread of Wautto having made some sort of deal with the devil and it seemed as if it could be true. He had always been a talented speaker and diplomat, but now he had a tongue which no one could seemingly resist and a veritable army of Sane to back him. He and his Cult of the Sane spread like cancer, turning town after town into a Place of Sanity. He spoke in the city of A'Arien, to the west of Ponfar and was turned away, but a short while later, the town was struck with a terrible plague. When the healers finally cleansed the city, over three quarters of its population was dead and Wautto was quick to step in and point out that without heros roaming the land, the plague would never have existed in the first place. The remaining citizens of the city caved and Wautto was named ruler of A'Arien.

At this point, the peacefulness and diplomacy that had always been the Sane's techniques shifted rapidly to force. From his seat in A'Arien, Wautto raised an army and swept south across the continent, conquering those who would not willingly be allowed to become a "Protectorate of the Sane". As of now, the city-states of Makal, Byron, Ponfar and A'Arien are all under the control of the Sane, and the forest city of Cullebra is under siege and has been for over a year. All of northern Nor'Doth is under the control of what is now known as the Federation of the Sane, or just the Federation. Heros found in the Federation are arrested and tortured before being publicly executed. A group of heros-in-exile living in the north have formed a resistance group called the Coalition and they do their best to make the Federation miserable. At this point it looks as if the Federation will soon cover the entire continent, since none of the city-states will outside Federation rule are strong enough to fight.